Welcome back to the thirteenth installment of Spire’s Bops and Flops, the series where yours truly reviews the best and worst music of the month. March may have flown by, but we managed to score some amazing (and not so amazing) music before the month was over. The music from March ranges from classic country to sleepy indie-pop, so as usual, there’s something for everyone. Happy listening!
BEST ALBUM
Welcome back to the thirteenth installment of Spire’s Bops and Flops, the series where yours truly reviews the best and worst music of the month. March may have flown by, but we managed to score some amazing (and not so amazing) music before the month was over. The music from March ranges from classic country to sleepy indie-pop, so as usual, there’s something for everyone. Happy listening!
At 88 years old, the legendary Loretta Lynn is still woman enough to make a phenomenal album, which features fellow female country artists Reba McEntire, Carrie Underwood, Margo Price and Tanya Tucker. Kicking off Still Woman Enough with a same titled track featuring McEntire and Underwood, Lynn makes it clear what her album is about, and that is to not underestimate her and other women.
Don’t get it twisted, Lynn’s newest album is not overly autotuned, cliche pop-country. Still Woman Enough is classic country that has heart, soul and an unmistakable twang. And in this case, Lynn has created a classic country album, but from the point of view of an independent, outspoken woman, which is somewhat of an anomaly for the genre. Still Woman Enough is Lynn’s 50th studio album, the first of which was released in 1963. I’m really excited that Lynn is continuing the legacy of classic country with such excellence and grace.
BEST SINGLES
Lil Nas X’s iconically queer single MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name) has caused quite the controversy since its late March release. Musically, the song itself isn’t anything too crazy or groundbreaking. MONTERO is a pop/hip-hop song that has a beat reminiscent of reggaeton, so if anything, it’s production is quite boring. However, MONTERO is making waves for being unapologetically queer and using Christian iconography in a blatantly sexual way for the song’s music video.
Shortly after his smash hit Old Town Road was released in 2019, Lil Nas X publicly came out as gay, and he has fully embraced his identity on social media as well as in his music. While LGBTQ+ artists explicitly singing and writing music about members of their preferred sex isn’t as rare as it once was, it is still pretty uncommon in mainstream pop. It seems like everyone is talking about the music video (we’ll get to that), but Lil Nas X’s repeated use of the term “boy” in MONTERO is an underrated advancement for the normalization of gay relationships in mainstream music.
The song’s title actually comes from the beloved 2017 film Call Me By Your Name, in which Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer co-star as romantic partners. Montero is Lil Nas X’s given name. The song’s title is another example of how MONTERO takes inspiration from many facets of queer culture and subsequently brings them into the mainstream’s spotlight.And last but certainly not least, MONTERO’s music video. Many Christians are outraged by the sexualization of their religion, but they are mostly angered by the video’s inclusion of Satan, more specifically, when a scantily clad Lil Nas X gives Satan a lap dance in black thigh high patent leather stripper heels. Many are calling the video disrespectful, and to be honest, I’m pretty sure that was the point. The institution of Christianity is notoriously homophobic, and this music video comes across as Lil Nas X’s way of saying “screw you”. Many LGBTQ+ people are told that they are going to Hell, and Lil Nas X sure did. When Lil Nas X flamboyantly and elegantly slid his way down the extremely long stripper pole that connects Heaven and Hell, he reclaimed some power for himself and other gay people alike.
Demi Lovato is notorious for landing herself in the Flops section, but this month she really impressed. In her new YouTube Originals docuseries titled Dancing With The Devil, Lovato recounts her past traumas, her battle with addiction and her near fatal overdose in 2018. Lovato’s same-titled single serves as an intro/ theme song for the emotional series, but it is equally impactful apart from its role in the docuseries. Lyrically, Dancing With The Devil is about Lovato’s overdose and the slippery slope that caused it, but the story is told from the perspective of an older, wiser Lovato. With her signature vocal intensity, Lovato stylizes this single to be impactful.
Lovato’s next album titled Dancing With The Devil… The Art Of Starting Over is set to be released on April 2nd. I usually have an aversion to the shrillness of Lovato’s voice, but personal reservations aside, I’m really looking forward to the musical and personal growth that is nearly guaranteed on this upcoming project.
If you’re a fan of Lana Del Rey, you’re going to love Boy With The Blues. With an acoustic guitar and sleepy vocals, Delacey recreates the signature somber energy of a Lana Del Rey song, minus the odd lyrics. Boy With The Blues is Delacey’s first release since her 2020 album Black Coffee. The indie-pop song is also the first single from her upcoming album The Girl Has a Dream, which is set to be released on Aug. 6 of this year. If Boy With The Blues is any indication of The Girl Has a Dream’s tone, I am looking forward to a passionate and wistful album to close out the summer with.
FLOPS
Justin Bieber’s latest album Justice is stunningly done deaf. Let’s start unpacking this dumpster fire of an album with its use of Martin Luther King Jr. speech clips. Justice’s first track, 2 Much, begins with MLK’s famous quote “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” and then the actual song is a standard love song that has nothing to do with justice at all.
This is a running theme of the album.
Justice’s seventh track, MLK Interlude, is a clip of a famous MLK speech, in which MLK speaks passionately about a metaphorical death that occurs when someone does not stand up for issues they care deeply about. This interlude is followed by a track called Die For You (feat. Dominic Fike), a love song that sounds exactly like you think it would. After listening to the album multiple times, I still have no idea what cause Bieber deems worthy enough to die for, other than his wife Hailey Bieber, I guess? The use of MLK clips in music is not what bothers me — it’s the blatant way that these clips are taken so far out of context. On an album titled Justice, there is no song that references any form of justice. And to use the great MLK’s speech clips on a mediocre pop album that severely lacks substance is inappropriate to say the least, especially during the Black Lives Matter movement’s resurgence.
But the album’s title and use of MLK clips is made even more confusing by Justice consisting of almost exclusively love songs. The exception to this is the final track titled Lonely (with Benny Blanco), in which Bieber decides to whine about being famous. I am completely fine with famous musicians including the struggle of stardom in their work. However, in this case it just exaggerates how out of touch Justice is. It feels almost as though Beiber is so delusional that he is somehow equating his personal struggles to those in which MLK was fighting against during the civil rights movement.
The actual music on Justice is pretty good. It’s catchy, and it’s reminiscent of Bieber’s album Purpose. And if you’ve been reading Bops and Flops for a while, you know Purpose is just about the only project I like from Bieber.
If Justice had been released without the MLK clips and weird album title, it would have most likely landed itself a spot in the Bops. However, the audacity Bieber had to take such a tasteless direction with the justice theme immediately ruined the project and sent it straight to the Flops section.
Hunter Hayes is somewhat well-known for his pop-country hits Wanted and I Want Crazy from his 2011 self-titled album, but he hasn’t really had any smash hits since then. Hayes seems to be trying out a new musical and performative aesthetic that is reminiscent of Justin Timberlake during his The 20/20 Experience era. However, Hayes’ new music like If You Change Your Mind is lackluster at best, and the country genre isn’t meshing with the slick, sexy vision he’s going for.
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